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Wednesday, April 20, 2016

A Brief Review of Doom Patrol v2 (1987 - 1989)

The Doom Patrol originally debuted in My Greatest Adventure #80 (1963). At the time, My Greatest Adventure
was an adventure anthology series that decided to "test the waters" by
introducing a super-hero feature. The introduction of the Doom Patrol
was a big hit with the fans and the series was quickly renamed to Doom Patrol starting with issue #86.

The
Doom Patrol were unique from other super-hero teams in that they were
not a "happy" super-hero team – they were filled with self-loathing,
often bickered among themselves and due to their appearances were
deemed as outcasts by society. This last point is important, as this
series was kind of a social commentary on how society in general treated
handicapped people. The series lasted 6 years, which is pretty
impressive considering it was a spin-off of an anthology book. The most
memorable aspect of the original Doom Patrol is how they were killed off
in the last issue of their own series in 1968 (sacrificing their lives
to save a fishing village). Their deaths were decided by a fan vote, but
the truth is that the popularity of the series was waning at the time
and it was going to get cancelled regardless. Rumor has it that the
writer, Arnold Drake, quit the series because of a dispute with DC over health benefits and joined Marvel comics instead.

Despite
the team being dead, that did not deter fans from sending massive
amounts of mail to DC comics requesting the return of the Doom Patrol.
Writer Paul Kupperberg was a fan of the original Doom Patrol and decided to introduce a new version of the team in Showcase #94 (1977). The team consisted of three all-new characters (created by Kupperberg, Jim Aparo and Joe Staton)
and Robotman. Based on the fan response of this new incarnation of the
Doom Patrol, they were slated to receive an ongoing series in 1978.
Unfortunately, the DC implosion put a halt to any titles being
introduced, so the new Doom Patrol were put in comic limbo... occasionally
appearing whenever Kupperberg had a chance to slide them into whatever story he was writing (e.g., DC Comics Presents, Superman Family and the Daring New Adventures of Supergirl).

Kupperberg
submitted another proposal for a new Doom Patrol ongoing series and the
DC editorial staff finally gave the ‘go ahead’ in 1986. At the time,
the Doom Patrol was still receiving a lot of attention as comic book
shops could never keep back issues of the original Doom Patrol series in
stock, Eclipse comics released a Doom Patrol chronological index that
sold well, fans responded enthusiastically to Doom Patrol appearances in
The New Teen Titans and various fanzines still discussed the hopes of a Doom Patrol revival enthusiastically.

The seeds for the reunion of the Doom Patrol were planted about a year in advance in issues of The New Teen Titans, Teen Titans Spotlight, Secret Origins and Vigilante (i.e. Beast Boy was a regular New Teen Titans cast member, Robotman and Mento were often featured in Teen Titans books, and Negative Woman played an active role in Vigilante towards the end of the series). The Doom Patrol finally received its first #1 issue in 1987.

The 1987 Doom Patrol series had a strong start thanks to Kupperberg’s suspenseful plotting/writing and Steve Lightle’s dramatic art. So why did the series only last 18 issues and an annual? Well…

1) Lightle left after issue #5 due to creative differences. In a 1998 interview, Lightle kept referring to the circumstances surrounding his departure from Doom Patrol as 'unique'. He expressed that the new Doom Patrol should’ve never been more than a mini-series. A young Erik Larsen (of Savage Dragon) became the regular penciler after Lightle left. Many fans complained that Larsen’s
style was "too cartoony" and detracted from the dramatic/suspenseful
tone of the book. This is one of the few times that I’ve heard of a
change in artist leading to decreasing sales in a comic series. Larsen left after issue #15. Fun fact: If you read this series in chronological order, you will see Larsen’s art get progressively better as the series continues (or maybe he just worked with better inkers?)

2)
In issue #2, Negative Man (of the original Doom Patrol) had been
revealed to have survived the blast that originally killed off the rest
of the team in 1968. This had a mixed reaction from the fans: some were
thrilled about the return of Negative Man, and some were angry claiming
that resurrecting him cheapened the impact of the heroic sacrifice the
original Doom Patrol had made. Keeping in mind, this was 1987 and
resurrecting previously deceased characters (no matter how popular they
were) hadn’t become a recurring thing yet. Niles Caulder (the Chief)
would also be resurrected before the 2 year run was complete. Fun fact: the return of the Chief was accidentally leaked to fans in advance by an issue of DC’s Who’s Who.

3) Kupperberg
likes to create and add his own characters into his stories and by
issue #4 we were introduced to two new Doom Patrol recruits: Rhea Jones (aka: Lodestone) and
Karma (created by Kupperberg and Lightle).
The new characters were introduced as “young outcasts” who joined the
Doom Patrol for various reasons but mainly to belong somewhere. Fans
tended to point out that this was the same concept as Marvel’s New Mutants
comic series. This created a “new Doom Patrollers / old Doom
Patrollers” dynamic in the series that not all fans were pleased with. Another recruit, Scott Fischer, would be added by issue #6. Fun fact: Dorothy Spinner (a major character in Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol run) first appeared in issue #14 (created by Kupperberg and Larsen).

4) As great as Kupperberg’s
writing/plotting was, he just couldn’t re-create that "old magic" that
drove all of the original Doom Patrol fans wild. While the new Doom
Patrollers / old Doom Patrollers were interesting as individual
factions, they just didn’t mesh together well for storyline purposes.
The appeal of the original Doom Patrol was that they were outcasts from
society due to their handicaps/appearances whereas the new Doom Patrol
looked pretty normal and didn’t earn that moniker. The fan expectations
on this title were extremely high; everyone thought they wanted a new
Doom Patrol title, but then some realized it was the original Doom
Patrol they wanted. However, if Kupperberg resurrected the
original 4 members he would’ve been vilified for spoiling their deaths. Additionally, Changeling and Mento (also members of the original Doom
Patrol) were being used by Marv Wolfman so they couldn’t be worked into the storyline.

Due to fan dissatisfaction and lagging sales, the whole creative team for Doom Patrol was completely overhauled by issue #19. A new Scottish up-and-coming writer named Grant Morrison was set to take the reigns and try to revitalize the title. Kupperberg
had the courtesy to clean-up/kill all of the characters he created when
his run ended: Arani (Celsius) dies in issue #17, Rhea Jones falls into
a coma and Scott Fischer dies (both as a result of the Invasion
cross-over event), Karma joins the Suicide Squad and dies on his first
mission, Valentina (Negative Woman) becomes de-powered and slips into
comic limbo.

I have very fond memories of this series as a
youth - particularly of issue #1. Not having access to comic book shops
of any kind, I read and re-read this #1 issue several hundred times
before I was finally able to get my hands on the rest of the series in
my late teens. The extra Who’s Who pages at the end of the
first issue were a nice touch, especially since I was not familiar with
any of these new characters whatsoever. I really feel that this series
was a celebration of Kupperberg’s persistence to 'keep the dream alive' as he was the main driving force behind a Doom Patrol resurrection.

In his own words, Kupperberg (who was a huge fan of the original Doom Patrol) always felt regretful that he 'broke' Arnold Drake’s original concept of the Doom Patrol. He explains that he was still a young writer and was caught up with the trend of changing/fixing and otherwise screwing around with what came before.Kupperberg even went so far as to sit down with Drake and apologize in person. Kupperberg describes the whole ordeal in the foreword of volume 4 of the Doom Patrol archives.

3 comments:

This is an awesome write-up!! Like you, I was entranced by Steve Lightle's art, and had been hooked by the Secret Origins lead in done by John Byrne. I read that #1 over and over as well--that wraparound cover is still fantastic! Although I appreciate it more now, I was also one of those jarred by the shift to Erik Larsen, but came back for the Morrison years--which resulted in some of my favorite comics of all time.

There have been four (4!) more Doom Patrol incarnations/revamps since the Grant Morrison/Rachel Pollack incarnation, and the only consistent team member is Robotman. When I get some free time I'd like to give the Byrne (doom patrol v4) series a shot - the others I'm a little wary of.